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Moshe Ya’alon was born in 1950 in Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa. He was drafted into the Nahal Paratroopers Regiment in 1968 and fought in the War of Attrition (1967-1970). He served as a reserve Paratrooper during the Yom Kippur War, and was part of the first brigade to cross the Suez Canal. Ya’alon was appointed as Chief of Staff of the IDF in 2002 and served in that position until 2005 overseeing the IDF efforts to quell the Second Intifada as well as Operation Defensive Shield (2002). He joined the Knesset after the 2009 elections as a member of the Likud party, and was immediately appointed Vice Prime Minister & Minister of Strategic Affairs. In March 2013 Ya’alon replaced Ehud Barak as Defence Minister, serving until mid 2016. In this position he oversaw much development of the IDF as well as Operation Protective Edge.

GUEST SPEAKER
RAMI SHERMAN
IDF COMMANDO – OPERATION ENTEBBE

Rami Sherman grew up in the North of Israel. During his army service, he served in the IDF’s Navy Seal unit, reaching the rank of Major. In 1976, during “Operation Entebbe”, Rami served as the Operations Officer to the Unit Commander. Operation Entebbe was a successful counter-terrorism rescue mission carried out at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. The operation was necessary after an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked. 148 non-Israeli passengers were released, leaving 94 passengers and the 12 member Air France crew. The IDF suffered only one casualty during this operation, the unit commander Yoni Netanyahu (older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu). The operation itself took a week to plan, and only 90 minutes to execute. Operation Entebbe is widely considered one of the most daring and successful counter-terrorism operations ever to have been undertaken.